KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A tornado hit Wichita on Saturday night as a series of storms tore through central Kansas. The number of injuries and the extent of the damage could not be immediately confirmed, but local media reported that a trailer park had been hit by the tornado. "Total destruction at trailer park south off 47th and Clifton," Wichita Eagle photographer Travis Heying (@travisheying) tweeted around 11 p.m., saying that he could hear voices in the rubble. He later tweeted photos at the Pinaire Mobile Home Park showing survivors walking through heavy damage, with one photo showing a man digging through the rubble: "This man shouted, 'Quiet!

Spare the parade Re "Occupy protest plan prompts beefed-up Rose Parade security," Dec. 28 It is a shame that the Occupy movement has plans to demonstrate at the Rose Parade. The parade is a New Year's tradition that is loved and watched by millions. People love the floats, marching bands and everything that goes with it; I don't think they want to see a group of protesters mixed in. This is not the kind of event for such things. It is also a shame that more money is being spent on extra security.

When David Latham laid eyes on Santa Monica's Village Trailer Park in 1990, he fell in love with the abundant trees and vintage mobile homes. He paid about $20,000 for one of two vacant trailers and ever since has happily leased his rent-controlled space by the month amid the retro ambience. Latham, 66, an unemployed teacher, and dozens of other low-income residents are now scrambling to save their funky slice of paradise as the park's owner seeks to redevelop the nearly 4-acre site into a complex with residential units, offices and shops.

Penny Puckett came to Slab City and fell in love. After four years of "bumming around and hopping freight trains," the 25-year-old from Kansas City arrived at this hardscrabble section of the Imperial Valley desert and immediately embraced its sense of liberation from society's rules and norms. What others might view as desolation and deprivation, Puckett saw as a way to reduce life to its essence: water, food and shelter (plus Internet and cellular phone service). PHOTOS: Slab City "Slab City people have a great need to live with just the bare necessities and are happy about it," she said.

Danny Brizendine was 2 months and 3 days old when his mother traded him for a cigarette. "It was for a whole pack of cigarettes," says Brizendine, now 47. No, it was for a single smoke, corrects Annie Brizendine, the woman who made the trade, took the infant in and later adopted and raised him. It was Oct. 17, 1963, when Nancy Keller walked into a mobile home park near Lockheed Air Terminal, now known as Bob Hope Airport, and knocked on...

Now that both the United States and Canada have celebrated their respective national summer holidays, there comes news out of Florida of a simmering dispute over their respective national anthems. With the result that both got banned. Canada celebrated the oddly named Canada Day on July 1 with much playing of "O Canada," the national anthem that became official in 1980. This being Canada, it has two versions, one in French and one in English. The versions actually have different lyrics, but that's another story.

Streets once filled with rotting garbage have been cleared. Most of the menacing wild dogs are gone. Shady employees peddling drugs have been let go. Fire hazards and illegal businesses have been removed. A year after a federal judge rejected government efforts to shut down the trailer park known as Duroville, this cramped warren of banged-up trailers and relentless poverty is experiencing something of a renaissance. It's still hot, ugly and crowded, but the air of despair and fear has lifted.

High noon in Duroville and nothing moved but a swirl of dust and a lone American flag flapping in the scorching breeze. Wild dogs, stricken by heat and light, could barely lift their heads. Dr. Alberto Manetta squinted hard at the jumble of sagging trailers and dirt roads winding through the 40-acre patch of California desert. In the months ahead, this impoverished mobile home community of up to 4,000 mostly Latino farmworkers would serve as a laboratory for the UC Irvine medical professor and about a dozen student volunteers -- sort of a model Third World village just two hours from campus.

It's tough living in the shadow of one of the most recognized tourist attractions in the world. For decades, Garden Grove city leaders have tried to ride Disneyland's coattails by building their own tourist destination. There's been talk of a Las Vegas-like casino, a theme park on Latino history, a music-filled river walk; all died in the early planning stages. But that hasn't stopped city officials from putting tourism at the heart of Garden Grove's plans for the future.

Sylmar's burning again. That's what Heidi Bayandor thought last November when she looked out her window and saw flames lapping at the foothills near her home in Oakridge Mobile Home Park. She quickly headed to her brother's home in Beverly Hills. The Sayre fire burned through 11,000 acres in the San Fernando Valley and destroyed nearly 500 residences -- most of them in her community.